Bolsonaro minister who jailed Lula takes leave after leaks cast doubt on impartiality
Sérgio Moro became a national hero for his role as a judge in the sweeping graft scandal Operation Car Wash
Dom Phillips in Rio de Janeiro
Mon 8 Jul 2019 15.57 EDT
Brazil’s justice minister, Sérgio Moro, has been granted a leave of absence following a slew of damaging leaks that have cast serious doubts over his impartiality as a judge in a sweeping graft scandal.
Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s far-right president, approved the break, from 15-19 July, for Moro to “deal with personal matters”, according to an official government document published on Monday.
The ministry said Moro will be on holiday, but analysts speculated Moro’s job was threatened following leaked cellphone chats which showed that as a judge, he guided prosecutors in the investigation which led to the imprisonment of powerful businessmen and politicians including the former Workers’ party president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
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“It’s not common for ministers to take leave of absence,” said Jairo Nicolau, a professor of political science at Rio’s Getulio Vargas Foundation, a business school. “Moro’s situation is getting more and more difficult.”
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During a grilling in congress, Moro refused to comment on a report that federal police had asked a finance ministry money laundering unit to investigate the American journalist Glenn Greenwald, the co-founder of the Intercept.
On Monday, Brazil’s federal court of accounts said it would give the unit 24-hours to explain the supposed investigation which it called “persecution and abuse of power, to intimidate the journalist” and a waste of public money.
More:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jul/08/moro-lula-leaks-bolosnaro-justice-minister-takes-leave-brazil